Our Short Stories
by kuribon
Summary: Collection of drabbles for Sasusaku Month 2013..
1. She Understood

**Day 1: Holding Hands**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

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He never really asked her for forgiveness. At least not with words.

Sasuke Uchiha was never a man of many words. He had always been more a man of actions. That was something known by all the ones who had met him. Those who were close to him had learnt to read these actions. Especially her, Sakura Haruno.

Two months after the end of the war, a month-and-a-half after going back to Konoha, and four days after leaving his house arrest, he just showed up on the hospital and waited until she finished her shift. He then walked her home while she talked and talked about everything and anything that went through her mind with a smile on her face (because just having him back made her so happy). When they arrived to her apartment, he hugged her tightly, as if he was afraid of losing her. She understood. And she forgave him.

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He never really asked her on a date.

He also never had the opportunity of having a proper talk about the flowers and the bees and the flowers. Or learning how to flirt from his older brother. Or talking with her mother about all the girls in his class. He never learnt how he was supposed to act around the opposite sex. Most specifically, how to show his interest in one of them. And awkwardly asking Naruto how he had started off with that Hyuuga girl or flipping through Kakashi's books wasn't a big help.

One day five months since his comeback, after training, on their way to Ichiraku, he just held her hand while their blond best friend kept bragging about how strong he had gotten since they first formed Team 7. She turned to him with a surprised look on her face and noticed his face was a little more serious than usual. She then realized it was because he was nervous (after all, she could read him better than anyone else), so she flashed one of those brilliant smiles of hers as they kept walking. Since then, watching her holding onto his arm as they walked through the village became a common view.

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He never really asked her to stay for the night.

Suppressing his own feelings and emotions for most of his teenage years, the Uchiha suddenly found himself confused by confusing signs sent by his body, heart and mind. It didn't took long for him to realize (much to his relief) that what he was going through was normal. Hearing Suigetsu and Kiba talk about women was more than enough of a proof. He was also aware that these signals revolved around his pink-haired girlfriend. But he didn't know how to move things forward so, once again, he turned to the infamous books his former teacher loved so much.

He first tried with a couple pick-up lines copied from the book, but the phrases were always left unfinished when he realized all those words sounded awfully in his mouth. He then tried to use his good looks showing them off a little when they were on a date, but the Haruno never showed any remarkable reaction to it.

One night, after coming home late for a mission, Sasuke ended up over-sleeping and missing training with his best friend, something very unusual for a person as organized as him. Hours later, during the evening, Sakura went to see him thinking he might have any wounds from his mission. After eating his favorite food for dinner and watching a movie, she was going getting ready to leave. Just when she was about to walk out the door, he grabbed her hand. She looked at him and noticed the desire in his eyes. As it turned out, she had also been wanting him for a long time.

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He never really asked her to move in.

Suddenly, walks in the park, double-dates at Ichiraku and a couple passionate nights a week stopped being enough for the Uchiha. He didn't have enough for her. He wanted to hear her voice welcoming him back at nights, and he wanted her to be the first thing his black eyes saw every morning. He wanted to cook, eat dinner, and clean after with her. He wanted to sleep on her lap while she read her medical texts, and he wanted to sit on the balcony of his apartment and watch the stars with her.

Eight months since he first held her hand, she noticed how he started to make some changes to his residence. He started by buying a toothbrush and similar health care products for whenever she stayed with him. He made space in his closet and bookcase so she could leave some of her stuff. He also started to buy sweet food, especially dango and chocolates, just in case she was craving for some. Before Sakura noticed, she spent more of her time in his apartment than in her own. But she did realize that her presence didn't annoy the Uchiha - it was the opposite, actually. By the next month, her apartment was on sale.

* * *

He never really asked her to marry him.

One morning, Sakura waked up early, as usual. She then proceeded to go to the kitchen to prepare some coffee she would drink after taking a shower, as usual. However, as sleepy as she still was, she picked up a piece of clothing from the floor and put it on without paying much attention to it. If she was aware that what she had on was Sasuke's shirt or not, he didn't know. He only knew that the red and white symbol on it's back looked great on her. It was almost as if it was made to match with her cherry blossom hair.

Almost exactly a year and a half since he stepped back into Konoha, she had a double shift at the hospital. He prepared her favorite food for dinner and waited for her. When the girl came back a couple hours later, she noticed something unusual was going on. Maybe it was the food, or his attitude. Or maybe it was the fact that she was wearing a shirt and a cologne she had previously gave him. She just knew something was coming up.

She finally understood what it was when, at the end of the night, a diamond ring slipped through her finger by a pair of trembling hands.

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**Author's note: I decided to try luck with SSM. I'll be trying to update everyday ^w^ Enjoy~**


	2. What if

**Day 2: Lessons Learned**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

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Sometimes, Sakura wondered if it was right to become a shinobi to begin with. Even though her parents were both shinobi as well, they weren't from any of the big clans, so she didn't have any fancy last name or bloodline. And when younger, she didn't have much confidence in herself, and usually thought she was more of a burden to her teammates.

This was one of those times. The day had been fairly calm at the hospital that morning, so her mind had the freedom to wander around a little as she drank a cup of tea, alone at the hospital's cafeteria, staring emptily at nothing in particular. That's how one of the nurses found her when she went to inform that she was needed to treat an ANBU squad that had just gotten back. It was nothing serious, but apparently they had asked to see her specifically.

Or rather, _one_ of them had asked to see her.

She got to the room where two of the squad members were to find her old teammates. Naruto was ready to leave, but Sasuke still had his wounds untreated.

This had been a constant for the year Sasuke had been back. He had been sent in different missions with different teams and, whenever he needed medical treatment at his return, he always asked for Sakura to see him and turned down any other medic. Sakura just sighed before beginning her work.

She knew he was trying to tell her or do something but, with how talkative he was, nothing had happened yet.

Going back to her earlier thoughts, she wondered how her life would've been had she not enrolled into the Academy. She probably wouldn't have found her passion for medicine, and instead would have taken a regular job, and eventually marry a civilian to have a quiet life.

Or what if she had gotten into the Academy but never graduate? Or if she had been placed in one of the many teams that failed the test to become a Gennin?

She noticed that Sasuke was watching her every move, making her a little self conscious. She then thought...

_How different would her life been had she not met Sasuke Uchiha?_

Even if she had, indeed, opted for a quiet civilian life, or had ended as a mediocre ninja, or as a Medic-nin as she actually was, there was no doubt her life would be totally different without him. _She_ would be different.

Because it was thanks to Sasuke that she changed. Sure, from that shy girl who cried for being bullied on the playground, she got confidence from her best friend Ino. But it was after meeting and getting close to Sasuke that she started to really care for others and decided to improve herself and become someone strong and valuable.

Sure, it was also because of him and his actions that she knew about pain, sorrow and loneliness. However, it's only when you know and endure pain that you start to understand the meaning of life.

"Sakura, thank you," he said. She knew he wasn't referring only to her recent healing.

And it was also thanks to Sasuke Uchiha that she knew about love.

She smiled to him before sending him home.

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**Author's note: Sorry this was a little late, but it rained all day and rain makes my internet slow to a point where it's enraging ^^u Also, this ended being more Sakura-centric than SS imo, and also a lot shorter than the previous one or the others I've already done, but I hope you'll still like it :3 Prompt 3 will be up soon~**


	3. Lunch Time

**Day 3: Watching**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

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"He's so cool," "he's so cute," "of course he's a top of our class. After all, he's a genius!"

Things like these were the ones that you would hear about Sasuke Uchiha back at his early days in the Konoha Academy. And most of them would come from his female classmates.

But he didn't have time for girls -at that age, most kids don't, actually-. He had more important things to do, like trying to impress his father and catching up with his brother. Girls were just there to annoy him and be lousy.

Mornings were usually the same: basic ninjutsu and taijutsu class and then Iruka-sensei would talk about the basic rules of the shinobi world. Lunch would follow and the end of the school day came with History class and all those other things they also taught in non-shinobi schools. Taijustsu class was Sasuke's favorite part of the day, but lunch came in a close second place. Mostly because he could use that time to study a little more by himself.

It was a warmth spring morning, and it was lunch time. Sasuke was wandering around the gardens of the Academy, trying to find a peaceful spot to study. Most of his classmates spent their time in the same area, laughing and eating their bentos together, so a place far from there was the ideal.

He finally found the right tree to sit under, but it was already occupied by that girl whose name he didn't remember. He recognized her as her classmate for her weird pink hair. A little bothered by the fact of another human sharing his studying space, the girl was silently reading on her own and, apparently hadn't noticed his presence. Knowing that looking for another spot would probably take him the rest of lunch time, he ended up sitting two meters away from was only then that he noticed him and raised her head in his direction, only to lower it again with a blush on her cheek. Having seen similar reactions before, Sasuke thought about how annoying girls were.

However, he ended up realizing that having someone else giving him company wasn't as terrible -as long as they didn't bother him, of course. He found himself enjoying her presence that day, as well as the next one. They became reading partners without any expressed agreement -but they didn't need one.

Sasuke also started to noticed her during classes. She wasn't very good at taijutsu and ninjutsu, and rarely spoke during class, yet she got the highest scores during written tests. He never put that much time into observing the girl, but it was enough to get to know her habits and gestures.

Sakura liked to watch Sasuke during class, too. As most of the other girls, she liked him. But she didn't like him just for his looks as many would assume. She liked him because he was strong, serious, intelligent, confident and calm. It always looked as he could do anything without much effort, yet he kept trying to improve. But he also was quiet and didn't have many friends, so Sakura usually wondered about what could be going through his mind. She wanted to know him better.

One summer day, after classes, Sasuke was leaving the classroom when he saw his reading partner -he now knew her name: Sakura- picking up her own stuff. Some of the kids were playing and running around, and one of them accidentally hit the girl making her drop her notebooks. Without any of the other kids noticing, Sasuke went to help the girl pick up her things again. As she usually did around him, she blushed.

After they were done, the Uchiha boy retook his way to the exit without saying a word.

"See you tomorrow at lunch, Sasuke-kun" he heard her say, making him pause for a little. Without turning back, he slightly nodded in agreement and finally left, as the girl watched his back getting farther.

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**Author's note: I don't have much to say this time, except for thanking all the ones that have read, reviewed and subscribed to this story. THANK YOU ^w^**


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